Lucknow :
Making a strong pitch for UP’s “visionary governance”, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said on Wednesday his Samajwadi Party government had envisioned a hi-tech city for Lucknow well before “others” launched the idea of “Smart Cities.” Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal to build 100 Smart Cities, Akhilesh said “people are talking about Smart Cities today but I don’t see the difference between them and the hi-tech cities Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) proposed years ago.”
At the ground-breaking ceremony of the ambitious IT City, for which the state has partnered with HCL Technologies, the CM said UP government has taken several path-breaking decisions to strengthen UP’s infrastructure, from building four-lane highways to distributing free laptops and bringing metro rail project to Lucknow. “SP government is doing things according to the need of the day. At the same time it has not forgotten its tradition. Apart from getting Amul to set up its plant in Lucknow, we are also making cycle tracks,” Akhilesh added.
Inaugurating three key infrastructure projects for Lucknow—two of them in the IT sector—Akhilesh inaugurated UP’s second Indian Institute of Information Technology, and UP’s first IT City project. “Besides creating job opportunities for UP’s youth, these projects will increase importance of Lucknow and UP in the country,” Akhilesh said.
On Wednesday, the CM also laid the foundation stone of Medanta Awadh, the 1000-bed super specialty cardiology hospital by Gurgaon’s Medanta group in Lucknow. Speaking at the ceremony, Medanta chairman Dr Naresh Trehan said “I am a product of King George’s Medical College and had the dream to pay back Lucknow for what I learnt here. The aim of this hospital is to be able to deliver state-of-the-art health facilities to patients at affordable rates. We hope the government ensures we get this project off the ground as soon as possible.”
The IT City project, rechristened by the state government as CG City, will come up in Lucknow on a total of 830 acres of land. About 530 acres of this land pocket will be developed for residential purposed by the Lucknow Development Authority. As part of the state’s affordable housing policy, the government also plans to build low cost housing facilities on 10-acre plots to be given to beneficiaries with monthly income of Rs 8,000 per month.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / October 16th, 2014